Caption: First World War aeroplane camera. Aviator demonstrating the use of a Graflex camera to carry out aerial surveys during the First World War (1914-1918). Aeroplanes were still a relatively new technology in the First World War, but were rapidly improved as the war progressed. As the stalemate of trench warfare developed on the Western Front, one of the main uses of aeroplanes was to carry out aerial reconnaissance over enemy lines. The Graflex cameras, first built in 1898, were at the time being made by the Folmer and Schwing division of the Eastman Kodak company in the USA. The US entered the war on 6 April 1917, playing a crucial role in helping Britain and France to defeat Germany and its allies. Photographed between 1917 and 1918.